Epic (2013 film)
Epic (stylized as epic) is a 2013 American 3D computer animated fantasy action-adventure film directed by Chris Wedge and based on William Joyce's children's book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs. The film was produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was released on May 24, 2013. Plot Following her mother's death, Mary Katherine, or M.K., moves back in with her eccentric father Professor Bomba, who has spent his entire life trying to prove that tiny humanoid soldiers, called Leafmen, exist in the forest surrounding his house. His searching has provided positive evidence for their existence, and he tries to explain the findings to his daughter, who remains in disbelief of his claims. Bomba's claims are actually proven correct, as the Leafmen are currently battling creatures known as Boggans, who seek to destroy the forest and throw nature out of balance. An independent soldier named Nod has a falling out with their commander, Ronin, and resigns. Ronin reports the recent attacks to Queen Tara, the forest's ruler. Tara's reign is coming to an end soon and she must pick a pod which will choose the next heir. Meanwhile, the leader of the Boggans, Mandrake, confides in his son, Dagda, about his plan to kill the queen and take over the forest. Tara meets with Mub and Grub, a slug and snail, respectively, who act as the pod caretakers, and picks out a pod. As she does, the Boggans attack and a battle ensues to protect the queen. Ronin retrieves Tara via hummingbird just as Mandrake and Daga begin to pursue them on crows. Ronin shoots and kills Daga and Mandrake abandons the chase to retrieve his son just as his arrow hits Tara, who falls into the forest below. After having an argument with her father over his work, M.K. decides to leave and live on her own. Ozzy, their three-legged dog, runs off into the forest and she runs after him. As she does, M.K. sees Tara falling. Tara gives the pod to M.K. and uses the last of her magic to shrink her. Tara tells her to take the pod to a glowworm named Nim Galuu and dies just as the rest of the Leafmen arrive. M.K. joins Ronin on the journey to Nim Galuu's hollow. Mub and Grub accompany them as well, acting as the pod's care takers. Along the way, they meet up with Nod, who has joined a race against other creatures riding on birds and goes back on a deal with a tough bullfrog named Bufo; Nod had promised he could join the races as long as he would come in last. Ronin saves him from a savage beating and informs him of Tara's death, which Bufo overhears. Nod joins the others on their journey to Nim Galuu's tree. Along the way, he recklessly flies around with M.K., who is terrified from the experience. After a run-in with the Boggans, M.K. and Nod get into a confrontation with a mouse, which Ronin drives off. Mub confronts Nod over his relationship with M.K., seeing him as a "rival" for her affection. The group arrives at Nim Galuu's tree, where he takes them to the scroll library and reveals that the pod must bloom that very night under a full moon at Moonhaven. Unfortunately, the rest of the scroll is missing so he cannot predict what will happen if it blooms otherwise. He also gives M.K. a scroll that reveals Tara's message to her before shrinking her and a message that will bring her back to normal size. Afterwards, she meets up with Nod, who apologizes for his reckless behavior earlier. He then takes her on a romantic ride on a deer, where they share their feelings of losing a parent. During their ride, Mandrake arrives and attacks the tree; he had forced Bufo to tell him of the group's whereabouts. Mub and Grub are kidnapped, having unintentionally revealed themselves on how to keep the pod intact. Ronin attempts to rescue them, but is unsuccessful, and scolds Nod and M.K. on their absence. M.K. apologizes, having been entrusted with the pod to begin with, and decides to help make up for it by getting them some armor. M.K. leads them to her father's house. There, she discovers that the Leafmen have been deliberately throwing Bomba off their trail, though he finds what they leave behind. Disgusted by their treatment of him, she is confronted by Ozzy, who pursues the threesome across the house. Bomba, left in a state of depression after finding a note his daughter left for him, notices and uses a vacuum jar to capture M.K.. Upon seeing her, however, he passes out. M.K. leaves a message for her father before leaving with the others and the armor they collected. In the meantime, Mandrake tortures Mub and Grub with stories of his son and how he intends to make the pod bloom in darkness and destroy the forest, and quite possibly revive Dagda. The information comes from a piece of the scroll he stole from earlier. Disguised as Boggans, M.K. and Nod retrieve them while Ronin distracts the Boggans and briefly battles Mandrake, before seemingly sacrificing himself to let the others escape. The foursome return to Moonhaven and place the pod under the moonlight, but Mandrake arrives and uses a swarm of bats to block the moon, causing the pod to bloom in darkness. As the Leafmen battle the Boggans, M.K. mounts a hummingbird and heads to the cameras he father placed across the forest in hopes of capturing the Leafmen on film. Bomba awakens and, believing that everyone was right about his being insane, shuts all his cameras off. However, he discovers M.K.'s message; a red push pin in his map revealing her location. M.K. is suddenly attacked by a Boggan riding a crow but is suddenly rescued by Ozzy, who is then followed by Bomba. Father and daughter reconcile via headcamera that allows them to talk in normal time (the Leafmen live faster than humans do, so they are impossible to see, thus making humans look and move slower in comparison). M.K. leads him to Moonhaven, where she uses his iPod to make bat sounds, luring the bats away from the moon. Nim Galuu and Mub are confronted by Mandrake, who attempts to recapture the pod, but Ronin suddenly arrives, having survived his fight with the Boggans earlier. Together, he, Nod, and the other Leafmen keep Mandrake at bay and as they pod finally blooms in the moonlight, it creates lunar waves, thus giving Ronin and Nod extra strength and forcing Mandrake back, concealing him inside of a tree. Having finally bloomed, the pod chooses a flower child who aided Tara earlier as the next queen. Ronin reconciles with Nod, Grub fulfills his dream of becoming a Leafman, and M.K. and Nod kiss before the former is grown back to her normal size and reconciles with Bomba. Some time later, M.K. has become Bomba's assistant and continues her relationship with Nod through her father's cameras, as the humans continue to remain in touch with the Leafmen while researching their world. Cast * Amanda Seyfried as Mary Katherine * Josh Hutcherson as Nod * Colin Farrell as Ronin * Christoph Waltz as Mandrake * Aziz Ansari as Mub * Chris O'Dowd as Grub * Jason Sudeikis as Professor Bomba * Beyonce Knowles as Queen Tara * Steven Tyler as Nim Galuu * Pitbull as Bufo Category:20th Century Fox films Category:Films Category:Blue Sky Studios films Category:Drama films Category:Comedy films Category:Fantasy films Category:Computer-animated films Category:Children and family films Category:Adventure films Category:PG-rated films Category:Action films Category:Underrated Films Category:2010s films Category:2013 films Category:Films based on Books